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Simplicity marks Francis’ style

View SlideshowRequest to buy this photoL'OSSERVATORE ROMANO PHOTOSPope Francis, center, celebrates his inaugural Mass with cardinals inside the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican. His homily yesterday was about the need to walk with God, build up the church and confess.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis put his humility on display during his first day as pontiff yesterday, stopping by his hotel to pick up his luggage and pay the bill himself in a decidedly different style of papacy from his tradition-minded predecessor who tended to stay ensconced in the frescoed halls of the Vatican.

The break from Benedict XVI’s pontificate was evident even in Francis’ wardrobe choices: He kept the simple iron pectoral cross of his days as bishop and eschewed the red cape that Benedict wore when he was presented to the world for the first time in 2005 — choosing instead the simple white cassock of the papacy.

And in his first Mass as pope, Francis showed how different he would be as a pastor, giving an off-the-cuff homily about the need to walk with God, build up his church and confess.

It was a far simpler message than the dense, three-page discourse Benedict delivered in Latin during his first Mass as pope in 2005.

The difference in style was a sign of Francis’ belief that the Catholic Church needs to be at one with the people it serves, Francis’ authorized biographer, Sergio Rubin, said.

“It seems to me, for now, what is certain is it’s a great change of style, which for us isn’t a small thing,” Rubin said, recalling how the former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio would celebrate Masses with homeless people and prostitutes in Buenos Aires.

“He believes the church has to go to the streets,” he said, “to express this closeness of the church and this accompaniment with those who are suffering.”

Francis began his first day as pope making an early morning visit in a simple Vatican car to a Roman basilica dedicated to the Virgin Mary and prayed before an icon of the Madonna.

The main item on Francis’ agenda yesterday was his inaugural afternoon Mass in the Sistine Chapel, where cardinals elected him leader of the 1.2 billion-strong church in an unusually quick conclave.

At the start of the Mass, Francis exchanged words with Monsignor Guido Marini, the Vatican’s master of liturgical ceremonies who under Benedict ushered in a far more traditional style of liturgy, heavy on Gregorian chant, Latin and the silk-brocaded vestments of the pre-Vatican II church.

Vatican officials confirmed reports that Marini was somewhat put off by Francis’ refusal on Wednesday night to wear the formal papal red cape when he emerged on the loggia overlooking St. Peter’s Square to be introduced to the crowd. Benedict was known to favor many of the trappings of the papacy, including the elaborate vestments and ceremonial gear used by popes past.

Traditionalists had rejoiced with Benedict’s return to these elements of the pre-Vatican II church, arguing it was the true church and not the one spoiled by the council’s reforms.

Francis, the first Jesuit pope and first non-European since the Middle Ages, calls himself Francis after St. Francis of Assisi, the friar who dedicated his life to helping the poor.

Yesterday morning, Francis stopped by the Vatican-owned residence where he stayed during visits to Rome.

“He wanted to come here because he wanted to thank the personnel, people who work in this house,” said The Rev. Pawel Rytel-Andrianek. “He greeted them one by one, no rush, the whole staff, one by one.”